Letters to the Editor
Published Letters: 146 Editor's Choice: 12
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Unwring those hands!
[Read the article: A glimpse at Versailles]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]As always, Glenn Greenwald's column is eminently insightful, intelligent, and pertinent. The one fault I find is a slight tinge of handwringing.
Unwring those hands, Glenn! Change is on the way. Actually, change is constant, as noted by sages as varied as Heraclitus, Marx, Isaac Asimov, and Thomas Kuhn. There are three factors to look at as change looms on the horizon: Global Warming, the unsustainability of our economic system, and all the other "countries" on this planet. These factors are interdependent, and the changes that are pending will be synergystic and monumental. An entertainment-oriented news industry will find itself under extreme pressure to adjust to these changes.
As I have noted elsewhere, the Bush criminal regime is both the end result of a frivolous and enabling news media and a catalyst for change. It takes a lot to hold a society together, and it has to effectively hold to a certain level of social contract. People have to agree to drive on the right side of the street, for example, and pay for what they buy. Businesses have to provide safe and useful products, and pay honest wages to their employees. When the example at the top is complete lawlessness, it filters throughout the social order. Antecedent yields consequence, cause yields effect, sow yields reap.
One example of the changes that are already taking place is Salon. Writers here are not likely to be making big money, but the quality is at the highest level. As the synergy among the various factors of change intensifies, we can hope and expect Salon to grow in influence and readership. The handwringing will be at Fox News, CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and their imitators. It couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of guys.
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Barry Bonds, good guy
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm a supposedly "white" person, though in crayons the color is called "flesh." Or used to be, many years ago. I actually kind of like Barry Bonds. He's a guy making a living. He hasn't killed anyone, and provides a lot of thrills to baseball fans. Compared to our "president" he's a saint.
As far as his taking steroids or not, players have been cheating in various ways ever since the game started. Another way of looking at it is that he is sacrificing his future health for the fans. What more can a guy do?
It's kind of hard to believe that Hank Aaron's record is now sacred. If records can't be broken, then why play the game? It's more interesting when there is a record to chase. Surely Bud Seilig must be happy about a hype that brings the fans through the turnstiles.
Then there is the "hall of fame." In a secular society we can always expect profane things to be anointed as sacred. It is in our nature. If the "hall of fame" is to be true to its name, then the only criterion should be whether a candidate is or was famous. Barry Bonds certainly is famous. Ergo, worthiness for the "hall of fame."
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Paradigm shift
[Read the article: Brit Hume is a "journalist"; Keith Olbermann is "partisan"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Great stuff, as usual. Except for one thing. Because we in "America" have the belief in a mythical spectrum of "left" to "right," partisans are assigned placement somewhere along this imaginary scale. It doesn't actually exist, but to play in the game one supposedly has to buy in to the collective hunch.
I don't see "conservatives" as "conservatives," but by the more accurate ascription: criminal. Sociopath is also more accurate. The fact that they are all liars should give some pause to those who are so addicted to the spectrum paradigm. It doesn't. It would be presumptuous or pompous to refer to the "left" side as the truth side, and the "right" side as the falsehood side, but it's only out of politeness or to avoid the absurdity that it is not said outright.
So, just to be clear, Brit Hume is not a "conservative." He's a criminal. He is a major player for a criminal television network that serves to provide propaganda cover for the omni-criminal gang that wields executive power in the "United States."
What I suggest as a way of freeing ourselves from the delusion of "left" versus "right" is to imagine what out dialogue would be without clutching at this obsolete, inappropriate metaphor. It should be a liberating experience. The next step is to act upon that liberation. There is no "left" and "right."
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From a distance
[Read the article: From Dallas to Baghdad]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The key factor in finding the truth about the Kennedy assassination, the history of CIA lawlessnes (the current brouhaha over Luis Posada Carriles being just one example), the Cheney energy task force, and any number of other suspicious government activities is the impunity of government agencies from responsibility. They can classify anything they want, and through legal subterfuge can hide evidence of their multitudinous crimes forever.
Not to worry. These criminals are just men. They get old. They get sick. They die, just like everyone else. The pursuit of impunity is a form of self-godliness delusion. To have impunity is to be above the law, a downright godly power. The pursuers of this power reveal themselves to be weak, vain, and criminal - not amounting to much as human beings. When they die they find out just how godly they really are.
We do what we can do at this level of reality, but we can't do everything. If we think we can, then we suffer from the same delusion as the JFK assassins, the protectors of Luis Posada Carriles, the torturers at Guantanamo, and the entire Bush crime family for that matter. Sometimes it's good to just step back and look at things from a little distance.